Status: Reconnection Made
Patch sat down to his computer. The message sat dully on his screen.
From: Patch
To: Jai
Subject: Hey Jai. . .
Date: 01 Aug 2222 21:06:40 +1000
Dear Jai,
It's been a while since I've seen you. I've been looking up schedules and I think both our ships end up in the same space station on the same week. Maybe we can catch up and have a drink or a meal. Actually, it's been a long while since I last saw you. When I last saw you, you were heading off to uni. Well, four years on and we both have jobs on ships. So why don't I tell you a bit about what I've done.
For the most part I flicked in between tech work and army work. I've gotten a degree of some sort... it's on my resume but I forget what it was. Right now I'm on a peace keeper ship. We go to places in the middle of disasters and give supplies to them. I occasionally get chosen to do ground work, but mostly I'm just the info guy. In short, my job is to make sure we know about where we're going, the conditions we'll face and all that stuff. It's a lot harder then it sounds. I still use the galactic network to find most of my information, which requires filtering through endless webpages. I also help take care of the inventory.
My job doesn't pay all that well, but I pretty can do three and get paid for two on off. Apart from that, I'm in the Earth Army Reserves, but if Earth ever needs me I'm half way across the universe so they'll have to come and get me. My most recent job is to research the quadrants we will travel through to get home. One pirate attack in the past year, not much else. There's going to be meteors, but we'll be long gone by the time it crosses our path. The only other thing is a cloud of some sort that hasn't yet been identified, but we've been told it'll just jam our our sensors for a day or so.
I haven't met anyone. A couple of flings, but mostly just nothing which lost me friends. It's fine though. I'm good friends with a couple of tech guys and the captain is a good man. I work out a fair bit, it's that or be bored. There's only so much you can do on a ship. I've been working with a couple of guys on a new prototype teleport. The current ones take a while to boot up and activate. The physics guy, Ted, thinks he's near a breakthrough or something. I'm not so sure but if he succeeds we'll make heaps. I have a pet cat, Jess. She gets along well with the other cat on the ship.
So tell me about yourself. What have you been up to? What do you do these days? Have you met anyone? Just tell me everything. It'll make my day more interesting. Actually, you should probably only tell me a little bit at a time. Don't waste all your information on one day. And you should probably give me updates on what's happening each time I email you. Well, that's assuming we make this a regular thing.
Anyway.
Regards
Patch
Patch smiled and clicked send. He had a feeling this was going to go somewhere.
________________________________________
Jai lowered herself gingerly into the starboard control chair. Turning off the gravity in the storage hold when it was empty led to many interesting effects. Especially when the ship's mechanic was in the reinforced room with you. Unclothed. All of which contributed to the pleasingly familiar aches on and in her body.
She ran a hand over her mused hair and leant back.
Accessing the SkypeComm, she allowed herself to relax. After going over her body's vitals (everything was A-okay) and checking the duty log, Jai navigated to her message bank. Yawning, she watched numerous video calls and made notes on how she'd reply before continuing to the written messages.
An unknown name flashed amongst the list of casuals, and curious, she opened the letter.
A smile crossed her face as she read, and after she had finished, she immediately wrote a response.
From: Jai
To: Patch
Subject: Hey
Date: 02 Aug 2222 19:58:57 +1030
Patch,
Oh Patch! I was running through my comm messages, and came across this message from you. I had no idea who you were at first to be honest, but I'm glad you managed to look me up.
Yes, it's been a very long time since I've seen you. The last time I remember seeing you was at the high school Prom's After Party. You were off your face. Good times. . .
I'd love you catch up with you. What ship are you boarded on? You seem to know mine, but I have no clue where you are, and embarrassingly, I've forgotten your last name, so I can't even put it through a job search engine. Of course I'm still on the ship Hero's Heist, under Captain Jewels, who is a huge pain in the ass. I assume that you're right in thinking that our ships end up in the same space station on the same week. But may I ask which week? Now that we're in contact again, I can't wait to see you. I wonder how much you've changed. Maybe a video call would satisfy my curiosity.
What have I been doing for the last four years? Plenty. After studying 3 years for reasonable credentials towards being a hyper-drive ftl mapist (which is boring work, mind you, but fantastic pay), last year I managed to be placed on 5 different ships before settling for this one. Reasons why? Numerous.
Ship one: The Captain was a fascist pig who couldn't keep his hands off the youngest cabin boy.
Ship two: Pay wasn't good enough
Ship three: Incorrect jump co-ordinates. Half the ship was vapourized on a moon near Sirius. No one died, thank God. A few people were sucked out. But we were able to rescue them. It's great that the control room is sealed off and that it's mandatory for the crew to suit up before a jump.
Ship four: Was caught rolling around in the infirmary with a co-mate on duty. Some ships are just too strict.
Ship five: Job was too boring. Standard route to and from Earth to Mars. I wanted to get out of that galaxy.
So you're part of the army reserve, eh? That's brave. I wouldn't risk that. I mean - sure you'll be half way across the galaxy, but knowing Earth's powers of retrieval - did you hear of that national head hunt for the idiot who raped and killed the Earth President's daughter? He was all the way to Cerberus before he was nabbed.
It's surprising how alike our jobs turned out to be. I plan the jumps, and you gather the info on the places the jump lands at. Maybe we'd make a decent team. In fact. . . My partner mapist is sick - he caught some contagious disease from a service woman at the last planet we were at, and he's in quarantine for the rest of the trip until we reach port. Which will be in the next couple of days. I wonder if I'll see you there.
You haven't met anyone? I would have thought a honey-tongued charmer such as yourself would be burdened with some flower hanging off your arm. Me? No. I, like you, have met a few people, and fooled around generously, but no one has been as enthusiastic about staying with me as I have been enthusiastic about changing jobs and making my way around the galaxy.
Indeed, let's make this a regular thing. I'd like to hear from you. And I can't spend all my time banging the ship's mechanic.
Catch you later.
Cheers,
Jai
Jai inhaled and mentally sent the message on it's way to Patch's comm.
Smiling, she finished checking her inbox and pushed herself away from the controls. Time for a much needed shower.
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AN: this will be continued as soon as someone tells me this is okay to continue
I don't want to flood the forum with something that people don't want to read.
Also, I'm writing this with Patch via actual emails, so it's a periodical thing
I write in the role of Jai, and he as Patch.
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